Yannick Biron

Chief Executive Officer | European and French Patent Attorney

Yannick has joined the profession 20-years ago, is French and European Patent Attorney, co-founder and CEO at Welqin, and Of Counsel at European IP Firm, Withers & Rogers. His background includes more than 10 years of patent portfolio management, IP-related risk mitigation, budgeting, cost, process and change management, having held several key IP positions within Airbus and Safran groups. For many years, he was secretary of the French association of in-house IP counsels (ASPI). Before moving to private practice, at Withers & Rogers, Yannick spent 5 years developing new IP services, quality management, legal knowledge management and a worldwide attorney network at Valipat (now part of Clarivate). He is a full member of the European Patent Institute (epi) Online Communications Committee since 2017. Yannick has also co-founded the Association for IP Data Exchange Standards (EDIPI).

On Stage

The future of IP data exchange

How to move away from emails and custom web portals

For decades, the IP industry has relied on unstructured emails and PDF attachments to receive invoices, filing instructions, office actions, and more. This has led to thousands of hours wasted in manual re-entry, miscommunication, and duplicated work. The lecture will explore:

Why email is no longer viable for efficient IP workflows
Why text recognition (OCR) failed and why AI alternatives could follow the same path
The benefits of moving to structured data flows for IP firms, IP owners, service providers and PTOs
The rise of a dedicated and necessary IT ecosystem

Agenda Items

23.11.2026

15:50

IP Strategy & Management

Lecture

The Future of IP Data Exchange

How to move away from emails and custom web portals

Yannick Biron | European and French Patent Attorney